Congratulations, Chiefs Fans. But 50 Still Isn’t 108.

With the Kansas City Chiefs having won their first Super Bowl in 50 years, some people in Chicago are saying, “Big deal.  Fifty isn’t even half of 108.”  Which is true.  But what is interesting is that some of the people making those comments aren’t even fifty themselves.  Which should, in theory, mean that there was no difference for those people between the Chiefs winning the Super Bowl after 50 years and the Cubs winning the World Series after 108.  Or, for that matter, for fans in their mid- 30s, there should be no difference between the Cubs in 2016 and the Pirates, who haven’t won a World Series since 1979, or the Orioles, who haven’t won since 1983.  Except there is.

Because even though there were probably only a couple of Cubs fans in 2016 who were alive in 1908, being a Cubs fan meant that it felt like it had been 108 years.  That is what the media always talked about and what we always read about every time the Cubs made the postseason and it didn’t work out (or when they didn’t even make the postseason).  It was always there.

But it wasn’t just the fans.  Players would come to Chicago, thinking it would be great to be here when the Cubs won.  But they would also think there wouldn’t be any extra pressure on them.  They were only just getting to Chicago.  They hadn’t been here for the bad years.  But then they got here, and the talk about 108 years started.  It was always there for them, too.  Even when the fans cheered and cheered after a Cubs victory, the players could feel them worrying, wondering when it was all going to go wrong.

It was the same with young kids the Cubs drafted.  They didn’t know about 108 years.  They barely knew about Ryne Sandberg.  They had always won when they were growing up.  They were always the champions.  Why should Chicago be any different?  Except, even if they denied it, they started to feel it, too.

And so, even though nobody had been here for 108 years, almost everybody, at least everybody who cared, felt like it had been the whole 108 years.

If you want to know what the fans, the players, everybody, was feeling, look at the replay of the ground ball to Addison Russell for the second out in the bottom of the tenth inning in Cleveland that Wednesday night in November.  Look at Addison exhale as he fielded the ball and threw it to first for the out.  Just one more out to go, he thought.  As did we all.  But, of course, it took three batters to get that out – because it was always going to happen like that.  But it did happen.  And 108 years of history was lifted off not only fans who had rooted for the Cubs since Ernie Banks played shortstop, but also fans who hadn’t been around for a third of those 108 years, as well as players who didn’t imagine it would ever even be on them.

So, it is great the Kansas City Chiefs won after 50 years, but I understand why a lot of people in Chicago just shake their heads and say, “You’ll never understand.  But that’s okay.  Because it happened – and that’s all that matters.”